Stock Futures Pare Losses as GDP Shows U.S. Expansion

Stock futures are paring losses Friday after a better-than-expected report on U.S. economic growth.

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were paring losses Friday as investors cheered a better-than-expected read on domestic economic growth.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were falling 24 points, or 4.68 points below fair value, at 13,032. Futures for the S&P 500 were falling less than 1 point, or 0.22 points below fair value, at 1407. Futures for the Nasdaq were up more than 3 points, or 1.14 points above fair value, at 2651.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis said Friday that its advanced estimate on U.S. gross domestic product showed growth of 2% in the third quarter, above economists' average expectation of 1.9%, and versus growth of 1.3% in the second quarter.

"The advance third-quarter reading of GDP confirmed the impact on the health of the world's largest economy from a slowdown in global demand, but improved upon a lackluster second quarter," said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak.

At 9:55 a.m. the final read on the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for October is expected to come in at 83 compared with the previous estimate of 83.1.

Amazon.com ( AMZN) shares were rebounding in premarket trading, up 2.5%, after plunging into the red when the company came

up short on both the top and bottom line in its latest quarter despite a year-over-year sales increase of nearly 30%.

Apple ( AAPL) shares were also ticking higher after initially slipping on its delivery Thursday of a

Comcast ( CMCSA) posted third-quarter earnings that were in line with expectations and sales that exceeded forecasts as the company booked $1.2 billion of revenue generated by the 2012 London Olympics.

Shares were up 1.9%.

In other corporate news, Dean Foods ( DF) Morningstar business has attracted takeover interest from Michael Foods and Mexican dairy company Grupo Lala, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a deal that could be valued in the $1 billion to $1.5 billion range.

Shares were trading sideways.

Wal-Mart ( WMT) said Friday it plans to open 100 stores in the next three years in China and add 18,000 jobs.

The pace of store openings is a slowdown from earlier growth rates for Wal-Mart in the competitive Chinese retail sector.